Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t3.8

v2.c10.s2.t3.8

Su Manshu was known as "a lonely monk like floating cloud and flowing water". In his early years, he once learned English from a Spaniard. From 1904, he had been to Southeast Asia several times, and in Thailand, he met a famous monk and studied Sanskrit from him for two years. Then, he went to Sri Lanka and stayed at Bodhi Temple. In 1907, he became a lecturer for Sanskrit Society, made friends with patriotic Indians, gave away all his Sanskrit collections, talked with Gui Bohua, Chen Duxiu and Zhang Binglin about setting up a Sanskrit library, but this attempt failed, since no one responded. He published Collected Poems of Byron in 1907 and went to Singapore in 1908. In the late spring and early summer of 1909, Zhang Taiyan opened a Sanskrit class at Koishikawa, Tokyo, and recruited Mishira from India as the lecturer, and Su Manshu acted as an interpreter and worked with Mishira for two and a half hours every day. In 1910, he went to India and stayed at a temple in the central India, where he acquired a solid knowledge of Indian Buddhism, society, literature and customs. Throughout his life of adversity, he roamed around in a melancholic mood. In 1918, he became sick and was hospitalised at Guangci Hospital in Shanghai for several months, and died there. The last words he breathed were "Every being is sentient, and every sentient being is unimpeded". He suffered a destitute and troubled life, finally resulting in a weak and sickly disposition, and died at the age of 35 without consummating his potential. Wang Zhaoming arranged his funeral, and he was buried at Mountain Gushan near the West Lake in Hangzhou. Liu Yazi, a member of Southern Society as well, considered his poems "to be sad and beautiful", and his novels and essays "to be nothing vulgar". His writing is grand and outstanding.